Tuesday, July 31, 2012

OffBeat's special Satchmo Summerfest issue

OffBeat's August issue is dedicated to Louis Armstrong, whose birthday will be celebrated in New Orleans this weekend at the free-to-all Satchmo Summerfest, my favorite local music featival. I'm serving as the interim editor at OffBeat while we search for a permanent editorial steward for the magazine, and this issue is one of the proudest achievements of my career. In addition to my cover story about Armstrong there are several other stories about the trumpet genius, an essay about one of his greatest albums, the legendary Chicago Concert, written be Stereophile music editor Robert Baird, and a top ten list of Armstrong's greatest post-World War II recordings.

About Me

John Swenson has been writing about popular music since 1967. He edited the award-winning website jazze.com for Knit Media and has worked as an editor at Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Circus, Rock World, OffBeat magazine and been published in virtually every popular music magazine of note over that time. He was a syndicated music columnist for more than 20 years at United Press International and Reuters. Swenson has written 14 published books including biographies of Bill Haley, The Who, Stevie Wonder and The Eagles and co-edited the original Rolling Stone Record Guide with Dave Marsh. He is also the editor of The Rolling Stone Jazz and Blues Album Guide.
In another role Swenson is a veteran sports writer who covered the New York Rangers for 30 years, writing pieces for outlets from Rolling Stone to the Associated Press. Swenson is also a veteran horseracing columnist and handicapper who covered the New York racing scene as a columnist for the New York Post and the New Orleans Fair Grounds meet for The Daily Racing Form. His profile on jockey Steve Cauthen: Rise To Stardom, Fall From Grace in Spur Magazine was nominated for an Eclipse Award.